


While Shepherds Watched

by ahundredgyozas



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Boys Being Boys, Christmas, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 22:36:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5515829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahundredgyozas/pseuds/ahundredgyozas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mibuchi takes Akashi out for some Christmas shopping.<br/> <br/><i>for knb secret santa 2015</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	While Shepherds Watched

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheSwahn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSwahn/gifts).



> [Helle](http://theswahn.tumblr.com/) \- i truly hope you enjoy this!
> 
> warnings - a combination of factors made this fic was particularly difficult to write, but i did enjoy writing it nonetheless, and Helle, i do hope you enjoy this as well, even if it's just a little bit!
> 
> also, i sincerely hope i got mibuchi + akashi sort of in character, even though for the purposes of this fic, i didn't really address akashi's dual personalities ~~because i would likely do it injustice~~. also, mibuchi will be referred to with male pronouns for convenience's sake.
> 
> (title taken from one of the christmas carols cos i'm uncreative)

Akashi’s phone rang while he was playing shogi.

It was a tiny and innocuous sound; a far cry from the cheerful, upbeat music that frequently blared from Kise’s touch-screen phone, but not vastly dissimilar to the rhythmic beats that permeated the air whenever Midorima received a call from, not surprisingly, Takao.

As unobtrusive as it was, the staccato rhythm reverberated throughout the quiet room, breaking Akashi’s train of concentration as he was focusing on his match.

The redhead frowned slightly at the interruption, but he appreciated it all the same. Akashi had been losing to himself in the present match – his General had managed to corner his King – but after the Winter Cup, he had been learning to accept that losses were the only absolute in life.

Heaving a small sigh, he lightly placed the piece he had been fiddling with onto the board, before he got up to retrieve his phone.

\---

“Sei-chan, guess who!”

It was Mibuchi on the line.

“Mibuchi, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Now, now, Sei-chan,” tittered the other boy, “what did I say about not having to call me by my last name?”

A lot, Akashi thought, along with the rest of the his team, despite the fact that he wasn’t deserving of such kindness and graciousness, especially given his near-tyrannical reign over them during the entire school year.

Akashi didn’t say it much, but he truly appreciated his Rakuzan team mates.

“My apologies. Reo, to what do I owe the pleasure? The Christmas party isn’t until late this evening, is it not?”

The raven-haired shooting-guard had, in a fit of Christmas cheer, organised a team gathering to be held at his place that evening. No one was to be absent, he had continued, a deceptively warm smile on his face.

“Why yes, my dear, but since we still have a whole afternoon, we definitely have to take you out shopping. Your wardrobe is,” Mibuchi paused dramatically on the other end of the line, before letting out an audible sniff, “absolutely disastrous.”

"Absolutely disastrous? How so? I find it suitably fitting for my appearance at a multitude of events."

"Yes, my dear, if what you're attending are business conferences and weddings," replied Mibuchi, a hint of exasperation underlying his deceptively patient tone, "but definitely not for gatherings with your high school basketball teammates!"

"Well - "

"Nah-uh-uh! No protests, Sei-chan! Now, I expect you to be dressed and ready for when I come to pick you up in twenty minutes."

Akashi wondered irresistibly whether this was what it would have been like had his mother still been around.

"I understand," the redhead finally conceded. "However, you needn't trouble yourself with coming over; my chauffeur - "

"Sei-chan, what did I say about not protesting? No, I want to make sure that you experience, for once, what it's like to be a regular teenage boy, doing... regular teenage boy... things," sniffed Mibuchi, failing to hide the disdain in his voice at the thought of what he considered "regular teenage boy... things".

"I understand.” Akashi certainly hadn't been out very often without his usual entourage of bodyguards, and now might be a good time to change that. "Thank you, Reo."

"Twenty minutes, Sei-chan!"

\---

Exactly twenty minutes later, Akashi found himself at the gates of his residence. He was wearing his go-to combination of gray against black, and was being subjected to a thorough once-over by a promptly-arrived Mibuchi Reo.

Under Mibuchi’s critical scrutiny, Akashi felt very much like a child again, and the urge to not look away from Mibuchi’s contemplative gaze burned low and hot within him.

Akashi frowned slightly. The return of his other self had brought with it the return of a whole array of emotions he had forgotten in his constant pursuit of victory; a whole array of alien feelings that reared its head whenever his former and present selves fought the never-ending battle to remain supreme.

He forcibly kept his own gaze on Mibuchi’s face, wishing not for the first time that he was taller.

"Hmm, yes," nodded Mibuchi, after having completed his impromptu assessment. "Just leave it all to me; we'll turn you into a handsome prince! Not that," the taller boy trailed off, seemingly as an afterthought, "you're not already one..."

"Pardon?"

Without giving Akashi a reply, and with a hand placed protectively on the small of the redhead’s back, Mibuchi steered Akashi out of his residence – and in the direction of a new wardrobe.

\---

The two Rakuzan players ended up on the streets of Ura-Harajuku. Despite the generous width of the streets and their relatively built physiques, the two boys were still unable to keep from being buffeted by the sizeable throng of last-minute Christmas shoppers and bargain-hunters.

Mibuchi, the one with the height advantage, had undertaken the task of navigating through the crowd, and was doing so with much vigour, despite the crinkle of his nose at the boisterous shoving of their fellow patrons. Akashi, meanwhile, was left to trail behind the taller boy – and so he did, feeling very much unused to the entire situation.

Just when the redhead was, once again, regretting his short stature, a particular hard shove by a rather burly pedestrian knocked the shorter boy off his feet. Startled, Akashi barely had time to regain his balance before he felt a strong hand close around his arm, and a sudden tug pull him into the warm and decidedly solid chest of –

"Are you alright, Sei-chan?" murmured Mibuchi, somewhere above Akashi's right ear. "Stay close to me, now."

Feeling a sudden and foreign warmth blooming in his cheeks, Akashi carefully extricated himself from Mibuchi’s half-embrace, trying to retain as much dignity as he could.

“My apologies, Reo. That was – ”

“Don’t worry about it, Sei-chan,” Mibuchi replied airily, brushing off Akashi’s apology with a graceful flick of his hand. “Ah, now this looks like a good place to start!”

\---

What looked like “a good place to start” was in fact one of the smaller, independent boutiques flanking the crowded street. It was a modest and unassuming store, nestled snugly in between two large, brightly decorated ones, and the mannequins lining the display window gave a clear indication of the gender of its target audience.

Mibuchi wasted no time in pulling the smaller boy into the shop. Unceremoniously depositing his bemused captain next to one of the racks by the cashier, he expertly scanned the entire premises with a critical and experienced eye before he wandered off in the direction of the jackets and coats.

Akashi had barely begun to feel out of place, however, when Mibuchi pranced back to him, carrying with him two pieces of outerwear.

“Would you prefer the leather jacket,” Mibuchi announced, holding said jacket up in one hand, “or this woollen jumper?” He gestured to the sweater in his other hand. “I can’t decide. The leather jacket is classy and understated, while the jumper is comfortable and rather adorable, if I may say so myself – though, personally, I think you’d look good in both of them.”

“Either would be fine, Reo,” began Akashi, but Mibuchi shepherded him into the changing room nevertheless.

\--- 

An hour and several trips to the changing room later, Mibuchi could only conclude that his initial hypothesis was right – Akashi did pull off any type of clothing, and did pull off any type of clothing well. While Mibuchi loved shopping as much as the next girl, he could only stare despondently at the growing pile of blazers, jackets, sweaters, coats and jumpers in his hands.

And they hadn’t even started on the shirts yet.

“Sei-chan,” he declared. “We have a fashion crisis.”

“What is it, Reo?” Akashi could only return Mibuchi’s tired expression with one of his own.

“You,” the taller boy announced dramatically, “are too handsome. Every single piece of clothing fits you so well; I’m not sure what we should get for you.”

“Well,” replied Akashi, an unreadable look in his eyes, “why don’t we just get them all?”

Mibuchi usually chose to ignore Akashi’s family and financial standing, for they often overshadowed the diminutive redhead’s worth as a captain and as a person, but this was one of the times he was glad for it.

\---

“Where are you taking me to, now?”

It was not until the sun hung low in the sky and a golden hue was cast over the entire shopping district when the two teenage boys found themselves back on the streets again, their arms loaded with shopping bags of varying shapes and sizes.

Mibuchi glanced over at Akashi, who was trotting along rather obediently beside him.

The raven-haired boy stifled a small smile.

“I was thinking we could go for tea. I know of a dainty little café just along this street which serves the loveliest cupcakes and pastries – ”

“Akashi.”

A foreign voice interrupted Mibuchi’s little spiel – the owner of the voice soon after revealing himself to be Shuutoku’s shooting-guard, who had just emerged from one of the shops they had passed by.

“Midorima.” Akashi nodded at the green-haired boy, before his gaze slid to Midorima’s companion. Shuutoku’s point-guard was standing behind his friend, warily observing the exchange between the Teiko basketball team’s ex-captain and ex-vice-captain. “And Takao-kun.”

“What are you doing here, Akashi?” questioned Midorima, his expression stern.

“Merely shopping with my teammate,” replied Akashi coolly. “And what brings you here, Midorima?”

“Likewise,” sniffed Midorima. “Merely shopping with my teammate.”

An awkward pause followed, during which Midorima and Akashi stared at each other with guarded expressions, whilst Takao, who was still in the safety of his hiding spot behind the taller shooting-guard, was trying to hide his growing smirk.

Mibuchi could only glance around at the three in exasperation.

 _Boys_.  

“See you around, Akashi. Come, Takao,” said Midorima eventually, thus ending the awkward four-way non-conversation.

\---

The tenants of Shibuya district certainly spared no expense in decorating the streets during Christmas, and the two Rakuzan students soon discovered that fact when dusk arrived. Festive lights adorned the large shopping complexes and the small proprietorships alike, while couples and families milled around large Christmas trees scattered across the area, all clamouring to take the best photos.

Stopping in front of a smaller Christmas tree that had been sorely neglected by the swarm of pedestrians, Mibuchi mirrored the other shoppers by whipping out his phone. 

“Let’s take a selfie, Sei-chan.”

“A selfie?” questioned Akashi, not one to keep up with the latest trends.  

“Just look at this this little camera on my phone - right there - smile and..." A discreet smile crossed Mibuchi’s lips, “We’re done.”

“If you say so, Reo.”

\--- 

“Thank you, Reo,” smiled Akashi. He looked up at the taller boy, the expression in his eyes soft. It was almost time for the Rakuzan team dinner party, and they were supposed to meet up with the rest of the team at Mibuchi’s place. “I had a lot of fun today." 

“Any time, Sei-chan,” Mibuchi returned the smile, his own one warm and indulgent. Without warning, the taller boy bent down, dropping a feather-light kiss on the crown of Akashi’s head.

“You know I’d do this for you, any time,” the Rakuzan shooting-guard murmured, before he righted himself, an odd look on his face.

“Now let’s get going, or we’ll be late for the party!”

Without giving Akashi a chance to react, and with an elegant toss of his hair, Mibuchi skipped on ahead in front of his stunned team captain, as the two of them made their way to the nearest train station – and towards a warm reunion with their friends.

**Author's Note:**

> critique is always welcome!
> 
> also, have a merry x'mas and a happy new year ^^


End file.
